The
Summit, taking place five months after the holding of the Africa OGP regional
outreach meeting in May 2013 provided an important opportunity for
reflection, review and re-commitment on the side of both African governments
and civil society.
Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) collaborated with the Support Unit,
Civil Society Coordinator, UK Cabinet Office, World Bank Institute, Government
of South Africa and Alianza
Regional in the planning and organisation of different aspects of the
Summit and events.These included among others the Civil Society day, the
African Caucus and Networks session.

Ahead
of the Summit, AFIC worked in partnership with its members in South Africa,
Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, Ghana and Malawi and ONE Campaign on country specific
advocacy to
make commitments at the summit that would increase government transparency and
help to promote accountability. We are very pleased that a number of
Governments including Ghana and Tanzania have taken
practical measures in the direction of our requests.

The Summit attracted a good
number of AFIC members including Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (Ghana),
Human Rights Network (Uganda), International Commission of Jurists (Kenya) Open
Democracy Advice Centre (South Africa), Center for Media Studies and Peace Building
(Liberia) Society for Democratic Initiatives (Sierra Leone), Media Rights
Agenda and Public and Private Development Centre (Nigeria) and Centre for Human
Rights Rehabilitation (Malawi). During the Summit, AFIC Secretariat and members
used the opportunity to hold side discussions on individual countries to
strategise on enhancing advocacy for the right to information. Members also
explored opportunities for peer learning amongst each other.

Summit
Process and Outcomes

The OGP London Summit
was important for Africa in terms of fulfilling commitments and mobilising
action:

Sierra
Leone adopted the Freedom of Information law and immediately sent letter of
intent to join OGP. This was a fulfilment of pledge the Government of Sierra
Leone made during the Africa OGP Outreach Meeting held in Mombasa, Kenya in May
2013.

African
countries agreed to consult amongst themselves and agree on the host and date
of the next OGP Africa regional meeting. South Africa offered to facilitate
this consultation.

Peer
learning and support arrangements will be discussed through a series of video
conferences and webinars. AFIC in collaboration with World Bank Institute and
African Governments will follow-up on this.

More
information regarding eligibility will be shared with African Governments and
civil society to support their respective national processes and consultations.
AFIC, Paul Maassen (CSO Coordinator) and the Support Unit will endeavour to
provide information.

Discussion
on helping countries to be more ambitious in respective country action plans will
be done.

Country
level strategies for reaching out to missing voices such as judiciary,
legislatures, faith based groups and non traditional transparency and
accountability prayers will be developed and implemented.

Opportunities
for OGP and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to mutually support each other
will be explored.

Strategies
and experiences on planning and mobilization of resources to ensure effective
implementation will be done.

Looking
Ahead

The spirit of
partnership between African governments and African civil society has grown
strong over the past year. The discussions more and more focus on how to make
OGP relevant and productive in the African context. Increasingly, there is more
knowledge sharing among civil society groups across countries in the region as
well as frequent engagement between governments and civil society. The coming
days should focus on preparations for the next Africa OGP regional meeting and
development of a regional strategy for ongoing knowledge exchange and peer
support, outreach to new members, strong implementation and monitoring.